How do the Unitarian Universalist worship?

Question

I'm just curious because I have no idea.I've been told they have no real standard set of beliefs.

Answer 1

We have standard beliefs about humanity, but not about the nature of God. That constantly amuses, confuses or annoys normal people.

There's an old Quaker joke:

Fellow who isn't a Quaker asks his neighbor who is a Quaker if he can come to a meeting. Neighbor says sure. (As you know, Quakers sit in silence until the Holy Spirit moves someone to speak. Outside of their meetings they feed the homeless, counsel the sick of heart, etc. etc. The American Friends Service Committee ran ambulances in WWI.)

At this particular meeting no one felt moved, so they sat in companionable silence for an hour, then got up, put on their hats and went home. On the way the neighbor asked "When is the service?" The Quaker said "After the meeting, of course."

If your question is what goes on in a UU service, it is like the other fellow said; a couple of hymns, a sermon and some announcements. Except for the fact we don't read the Bible much, our hymns don't praise Jesus and we don't sing very well, it is a lot like a liberal protestant service.

The question comes up so often I copied an order of service, point-by-point, into our congregations web site.

http://www.stanuu.org/faq01.html
is an FAQ page for people curious about us in general.

http://www.stanuu.org/oofs.html
is the order of service.

If you wonder how we worship, it is by doing, not singing. Eight of our 160 members served in the Peace Corps. (One served in a different Corps. He spent 4 years in the South Pacific, at government expense, flying airplanes and killing people who worked for the Emperor of Japan. He earned three DFC's before he was old enough to vote.) Our members helped found the local chapters of NOW, the Sierrra Club, the Neptune Society, Friends Outside (for families of people in jail), Friends of the Library, the ACLU. We feed the homeless. We work with Habitat for Humanity.

If you wonder what we talk about, since it isn't fire and brimstone, here are the "Blurbs" from two dozen guest sermons, from
http://www.stanuu.org/guestser.html

Other UU congregations won't have exactly the same, of course, but the subjects will be just as wide-ranging. I picked guest sermons instead of Minister's sermons because there are more of them.

The Radical Bible
What is the Bible's message to the modern world? Eugene Conrotto has adapted a Reader's Theater presentation from The Radical Bible, published in Germany in 1989 under the original title "Bibel Provokative". Focus on this Labor Day Weekend will be justice and the Third World. (September 2, 2007)

How Do I Decide?
Dr. David Simons. With ever-increasing discovery, development and information available, we can't be experts on the many issues and questions that face us. We still need to make decisions, though, and so we often depend on opinions from people we trust. How do we choose those people? How can we be confident about our choices? How do we make decisions on the issues that affect our lives and our society? (August 19, 2007)

Our Four Natural Enemies
Rev. Bill Greer and Aynslie Frederickson. Most of us see the approach to the end of our lives as primarily concerned with two issues: memorializing our wishes with regard to the transfer of assets we have accumulated; and bringing our relationships with those we care about or love into a current condition by encouraging the expression of important, as yet undelivered, messages (feelings and conclusions). The ancient Yaqui wisdom considers a person's interior preparation for this transition (death) as far more important! (July 22, 2007)


The Morality of Atheism
Pam Loyd. It is common in our culture for "religious" people to claim that "godless atheists" are not moral and that a belief in God is required in order to be moral. But the truth is that atheists, because they don't believe in a God, must search for their personal values from a different source - which often results in a higher level of moral development. (May 27, 2007)

Eve Was Framed
Lin Myers, a professor of psychology who specializes in human sexuality, brings her considerable talents to bear on "the insidious negative messages about women that are probably more a part of all our thinking than we would care to admit." She quotes from Genesis and Freud, just in time for Mother's Day. (May 13, 2007)

Health Care Insurance:
Working Together to Ensure the Inherent Worth and Dignity of all People
Julie Bates, AARP, spoke about health care for Californians. AARP is coordinating a statewide coalition to ensure passage of a workable health care proposal this year. Julie is a member of the UU Church in Stockton, as well as the Assistant Director for AARP in California. (April 29, 2007)

Zen, UU and Me
The heart of Zen Buddhism is the practice of silent meditation. "Zen" means meditation, and Jim Robison has been involved with this practice for about forty years. About ten years ago, Jim's late wife Jerry "dragged" him into Unitarian Universalism. Zen Buddhists who meditate sit for hours, days, even weeks in virtual silence. UU's, on the other hand, are not exactly famous for quietly watching the grass grow. Can you even get a UU to sit down and shut up? It can get a little tense between Jim's inner Buddhist and his inner UU. Can this marriage be saved? (April 15, 2007)

The Joke's on UU
We had an all-humor service on April Fool's Day. A religion should be able to laugh at itself once in a while. (April 1, 2007)

The Path to the Goddess and Unitarian Universalism
Bernadette Burns traces her spiritual journey from Roman Catholosism through the Girl Scouts and Wicca to our Unitarian Universalist Fellowship. (Delivered earlier, but posted here May, 2007)

Standing up to Fight Genocide in Darfur
Tim Nonn is the Director of Judgment on Genocide. "The world cannot live with genocide," Nonn says. "A regime that is criminal to its core, led by men responsible for 500,000 deaths of innocent civilians and 3.5 million displaced persons, cannot be allowed to commit crimes against its own people with impunity." Nonn works with the Bay Area Darfur Coalition and many other key players. (March 25, 2007)

What Can Americans Learn From the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict?
Dan Onorato visited the area under the sponsorship of the Fellowship of Reconciliation in 2005. He shares the insights he gained from his experience. (August 27, 2006)

God-Awful Religion
Dr. David Simons gives a short treatise on the critical need to proliferate a rational religious world view independent of any particular understanding of deity. "The End of Faith" by Sam Harris has catalyzed my thinking on the appropriateness of "doctrine based" understanding of the Human place in the Universe and our relationship to the rest of "creation". I will explore the dangers that doctrine-based thinking presents in our shrinking modern world, and compare the doctrine-based world view to a possible rational religious world view, which I believe is inherent in our developing Unitarian Universalist approach to religious understanding. (20 August 2006)

Safehouse: Leaving Prostitution
Sister Rosina Conrotto writes: ". . . that is what we try to do at SafeHouse: to love our women, to let them know that they are not judged or condemned, to restore within them a sense of self worth. We respect their feelings and emotions." (9 July 2006)

Bill Petersen: an Eulogy
Fred Herman tells us about our first full-time minister. He spoke at Rev. Petersen's memorial in Santa Rosa in October 2003, but it took us until February 2006 to get a copy up.

Relationships
Ted Pack is one of those agnostics we mention on our FAQ page. He discusses the nature of God, his relationship with the Lord, the nature of our church and our relationship with each other. He uses two vivid metaphors and an underwear joke. (27 November 2005)

Musings on income disparity in America today
Dr. David Simons examines income trends over the past fifty years and discusses the implications for inter-generational class mobility and their social and ethical implications. Are we becoming a more rigidly stratified society and should we care? (21 August 2005)

What Does Being a Unitarian-Universalist Mean to You?
After we nailed what America meant to us, we tried for what UUism meant to us. Our coordinator read some quotes about being a UU, then asked the congregation what being a UU meant to them. Not all faiths ask their members about their beliefs. Cotton Mather, for instance, never asked his congregation about predestination. (31 July 2005)

What Does America Mean to You?
Five of our members discuss our country, in honor of the Fourth of July. (03 July 2005)

Lessons Learned from an Old Dying Dog
Debra Heins: A lifetime is more than the sum of its parts. As beings touch each other, they leave indelible prints that become a part of each other's psyche, and each print becomes incorporated as our own. The past many months have been intense for me with new and renewed experiences. I will share what I've learned. (22 May 2005)

Riptides and World Religions
Kathleen Ennis. The instructions for surviving a rip tide may help if a personal catastrophe threatens to sweep you away. (09 January 2005)

Global Warming - Why Should We Worry?
Dr. David Simons: We still hear differing opinions from scientists about global warming. David is a physicist with an interest in the topic. He gives the reasons for dispute and likely results. If worry is warranted, so are some definite actions. (15 August 2004)

Religious Language: Reclaiming and Making It Our Own
Sharon Arpoika. Many UU's feel uncomfortable with or resist the use of traditional religious language. Sharon explores the idea that a re-examination of this language might add meaning to our lives. (25 July 2004)

America's idols: Empire and Security
Dan Onorato on the morality of war in light of the conflict in Iraq. (13 June 2004)

Hetch Hetchy Valley: A Grand Landscape Garden
Ron Good, Executive Director of Restore Hetch Hetchy, makes an eloquent, impassioned case for restoring a second Yosemite Valley. (18 April 2004)

Adventures of a UU Web Master
One-eyed, two-eyed, three-eyed and four-eyed geeks. Elly Mae at Redneck.com, who wanted "pitchers from the Bible". An underwear joke. Humbling questions. Spiritual growth. It is all here. (30 November 2003)

Confessions of a Liberal
Malcolm Warren examines his life and beliefs. (28 September 2003)

Patriot Act(s) - Tempest In A Teapot Or Handbasket To Hell?
Fred Herman blasts the Patriot Act. (17 August 2003)

Does Science Have Anything To Say About God?
Dr. David Simons talks about physics and God. (3 August 2003)

From Whence Cometh My Strength?
Sharon Arpoika talks about losing her teen-aged son. (22 October 1995)

Answer 2

The unitarian universalist faith has no standard belief, only guide lines. If someone is a Unitarian that means that they believe Jesus was special but not divine and that people need ot be concerned with this life not the next. A unitarian church can worship in many forms, wiccan,Hindu, and some Christian ways. The Church and Faith leave the invidual perosn to decide what they believe in!

Hope This Helps!

Answer 3

I am an atheist/humanist and I used to wait a Unitarian Universalist church. I supported their center values that is what unites men and women there greater than a collection notion in a faith or deities and I loved doing group carrier tasks with a institution. They think there are truths in all paths they usually search to attract at the first-class knowledge of all of them. The offerings I attended took teachings, parables, and classes from a sort of assets and wove them in combination. The emphasis was once now not on always accepting any of them actually however seeing the possiblity knowledge and applicability to all lives inside them. There was once additionally plenty of displaying the similarities in teachings throughout faiths in phrases of peace, love, popularity, and many others...They have their possess hymn books, on the one I went to it was once "Singing the Living Tradition". It has a few conventional hymns and plenty of new ones that experience humanistic message.

Answer 4

Get together at 10:30 AM on Sunday, sing a few hymns, listen to a sermon relating to how to live a good life, sing a few more hymns, listen to some announcements about weddings, the bake sale, births and deaths and such, sing a few more hymns, then stand around and drink coffee for a half-hour while complaining that no one will come up with the funds to fix the church roof. Why? How do you worship?

Answer 5

They are secular Humanists. They believe in the value of human beings simply because they are human beings both with and without adding God to the equation. They also believe in the right of people to believe in what ever works for them as long as they value human life. The Fellowships have different groups for Buddhists, Christians, Jews, and yes even Pagans. The RE classes for children study world religions.

Answer 6

This is a pretty interesting description of U.U. beliefs.
Good luck in your search for information.